In Rutherford’s experiment, generally the thin foil of heavy atoms, like gold, platinum etc. have been used to be bombarded by the α-particles. If the thin foil of light atoms like aluminium etc. is used, what difference would be observed from the above results?

Explanation

Heavy atoms have a heavy nucleus carrying a large amount of positive charge. Hence, some `alpha`-particles are easily deflected back on hitting the nucleus. Also number of `alpha`-particles are deflected through small angles because of large positive charge on the nucleus. If light are used, their nuclei will be light, and moreover, they will have small positive charge on the nucleus. Hence, the number of particle deflected back and those deflected through some angle will be negligible.